Rejecting the NPF’s response to MLA I Imkong’s statement, the NPCC said the MLA and former CLP leader was a seasoned Naga political leader and had rightly expressed serious concern over the manner in which the NPF leaders purchased the Congress MLAs with crores of rupees.
Imkong termed it as a sad blot on Naga politics and the Nagaland Legislative Assembly and a serious breach of all sense of political morality. He also questioned as to why the NPF-DAN government was withholding payment of Contractors & Suppliers Unions bills, implementation of 6th Pay Commission, release of state’s shares of CSS etc in the guise of financial constraints while utilizing this money to indulge in “immoral activities” of buying the MLAs, the NPCC said.
NPCC Media Cell chairman R Paphino in a rejoinder son Thursday said “exhibiting height of hypocrisy” on the issue which required political morality and probity, the NPF Secretary General deliberately diverted the core issue to mislead the general public.
On the NPF holding Imkong responsible for engineering defection and resignation of several DAN legislators in 2007, the NPCC said the DAN legislators had resigned one after another in protest against the “autocratic and high-handed style of functioning” of the state government by top NPF leaders and also because of the government’s failure to contain law and order problem which was at its height at that point of time.
Regarding the imposition of President’s rule issue in the state, the NPCC noted that the NPF challenged it in Gauhati High Court but the landmark judgment was against them. The High Court also ruled that the Speaker’s action was illegal, unconstitutional, biased and malafide in every aspect.
“Therefore, it is beyond doubt that Speaker’s abusive and pervasive handling of the situation was the sole factor for invoking President’s rule in Nagaland and not as alleged by the NPF Party,” the NPCC stated.
On financial implication of 6th Pay Commission in Nagaland amounting to Rs 600 crore, the NPCC said the NPF Party was trying to champion the cause and take the credit.
“But the factual position is that, be it NPF or Congress, the political Party that is in power has the obligation to implement the 6th Pay Commission in Nagaland,” it added.
Resignation demand
Meanwhile, Nagaland Pradesh Youth Congress secretary M Biremong Yim said the CLP leaders and NPCC president should own moral responsibilities for the recent spat of resignation and if need be resign from their respective posts to keep the Congress Party intact.
“Is it not true that owing to Congress leaders ‘leadership crisis’ more party MLAs and party workers at grassroots level too are tendering their resignation day by day,” Biremong asked in a release on Thursday.
He also sought to know whether CLP leadership was inactive or incapable of diffusing the crisis and cautioned that if such a trend continued the Congress Party would be reduced to a mere skeleton.